KYIV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian court has frozen the Ukrainian assets of three Russian businessmen over their alleged support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, prosecutors and the security service said on Friday.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said assets owned by Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Andrey Kosogov had been frozen. They were considered part of President Vladimir Putin’s close circle and contributed to “large-scale financing of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression”, it said.
The three businessmen did not immediately comment on the moves and comments by the SBU and prosecutors.
“At the request of prosecutors… assets of 20 Ukrainian companies totalling over 17 billion hryvnias ($464.48 million)were frozen,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said on the Telegram messaging app.
It said the frozen assets included securities and corporate rights of mobile phone operators, a mineral water producer, financial and insurance companies.
“The beneficial owners of the companies are three Russian oligarchs who own one of the largest Russian financial and investment consortia,” it said.
Since the beginning of Russia’s military invasion in February 202, Ukraine has repeatedly seized and nationalised property belonging to Russian businessmen involved in financing the aggression.
($1 = 36.6000 hryvnias)
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage, William Maclean)
